Free Republic

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Gov. Ron DeSantis and three Florida sheriffs from enforcing a key portion of the state’s so-called anti-riot law, in part, because it “encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” The definition of what constitutes a riot under a new state law pushed by the governor is too vague “to the point of unconstitutionality,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of Tallahassee wrote in his preliminary injunction order....

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida's new "anti-riot" law, championed by Florida lawmakers as a way to prevent violent protests, violates First Amendment rights. That's according to a federal judge, who blocked HB 1 Thursday. Chief Federal District Judge Mark Walker said the groups who brought the lawsuit demonstrated that the law chilled protest activities since it was enacted, because "the challenged law's confusing definition of 'riot' fails to give their members sufficient notice of what is prohibited or when they could be subject to arrest, such that their members do not wish to participate in future protests or have ceased organizing...

A federal appeals court, which previously sided with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) amid Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) battle against the federal health agency over the vaccination rules it is imposing on the cruise industry, reversed its decision, ultimately siding with the state over the CDC’s No-Sail Orders.On Friday, Florida “filed an Emergency Application to Vacate the Eleventh Circuit’s Stay on the Preliminary Injunction.” That same day, the Eleventh Circuit reversed its earlier decision, allowing the cruise industry to resume operations without adhering to the CDC’s restrictions, including what effectively amounts to vaccine passports, which are illegal...

CDC Cruise Order Decision Reversed After Florida Appeals to U.S. Supreme Court The CDC cruise order decision has been reversed after Florida appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow cruise ships to disregard CDC requirements. The State of Florida has once again been successful in its ongoing dispute with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Conditional Sailing Order. The state went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal an earlier decision that favored the CDC to keep its order on cruise ships in place in Florida. Florida Goes to U.S. Supreme Court Against...

When will the Republicans wake up and see that the Democrat Party is not working for the US’s best interest? They work for POWER and will do anything to get it and keep it. We saw in nearly every big state lawsuit after the election that Obama judges were being assigned to the cases. They had multiple documents ready before they even heard the cases which ruled against President Trump and the American people every time. In February 2017 we reported on Obama and Carter judges making insane rulings against President Trump. We saw Obama judges obstructing justice with unconstitutional...

A pair of technology trade groups are pushing back against Governor Ron DeSantis after he signed a measure (SB 7072) on Monday that aims to block companies like Facebook and Twitter from censoring politicians from their platforms. A top priority for DeSantis during the 2021 Legislative Session, the new law gives the Florida Elections Commission the power to fine media companies up to $250,000 a day for “de-platforming” any candidate for statewide office and $25,000 per day for de-platforming candidates for non-statewide offices. The lawsuit alleges that the new law violates the Constitution, noting that it infringes on the First...

Brown was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison. She was let out last year due to COVID-19 concerns in the federal prison where she as serving her time.The appeal was based on arguments about a juror that Brown contended was improperly removed from her 2017 trial because he said the “Holy Spirit” told him Brown was not guilty of fraud and tax charges.

A federal appeals court on Saturday rejected a bid by a conservative lawyer to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia and left in place procedures that will make it easier for voters to cast absentee ballots in January when two Senate seats are up for grabs. U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg, who was nominated by Trump, rejected attorney L. Lin Wood’s arguments and found in a Nov. 20 opinion that the lawyer had no standing to sue. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta agreed with the lower court, saying Wood had failed “to allege...

Earlier today I traced yesterday’s sequence of events in federal district court in Georgia that led to the issuance of a TRO by District Court Judge Timothy Batten, whereby he directed officials in Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee Counties to not take any action to alter or delete electronic data stored on the Dominion voting system machines that were used in the Nov. 3 election. Judge Batten reserved, for now, the question of whether to allow the machines to undergo forensic examination by experts hired by the Plaintiffs in the case and gave the State and County Defendants until Wednesday to...

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that ordinances in Florida banning the licensed counseling of people with unwanted same-sex attractions are unconstitutional violations of the freedom of speech. "We hold that the challenged ordinances violate the First Amendment because they are content-based regulations of speech that cannot survive strict scrutiny," the ruling from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. The decision was the first from a federal appeals court laws against so-called "conversion therapy" – a term rejected by proponents – since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. In NIFLA v. Becerra, the high court ruled the...

A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump rejected what he called a “creative” lawsuit on Thursday. It was a suit that Georgia’s assistant attorney general warned would cause the Peach State’s largest disenfranchisement since the Jim Crow era.“To halt the certification at literally the 11th hour would breed confusion and disenfranchisement that I find have no basis in fact and law,” U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg declared at the end of a roughly two-and-a-half hour hearing.The celebrity attorney making the breathtaking request was L. Lin Wood, Jr., who also represented former U.S. Congressman Gary Condit and the alleged victim...

1. A motion to delay certification of GA vote based on a flawed recount was denied this evening by Atlanta Judge Steven D. Grimberg. The oral ruling was unclear but he may have overreached to dismiss my claim that election was unlawful due to @GaSecofState consent agreement. 2. The recount issue was separate from unlawful election issue. Sounded like Court thinks a GA voter has NO standing to challenge unlawful federal election. Lawyer for Sec. Of State suggested only state AG could do so. What? AG represents @GaSecofState. Makes no sense. 3. GA voters have rights. It is OUR right...

A federal appeals court on Friday voted against extending the deadline for voters to return their absentee ballots in the state of Georgia. The Atlanta Constitution-Journal reports: A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided 2-1 to grant a stay of a judge’s ruling that would have allowed voters three more days to return their absentee ballots.

An atheist group has filed a brief in support of a lawsuit against a Georgia college that punished a Christian student for preaching outside of a limited free speech zone on campus. The American Humanist Association filed an amicus brief on Tuesday in the case of Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, which will be argued before the United States Supreme Court. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm, filed suit against George Gwinnett College for its treatment of Christian student Chike Uzuegbunam. Although the school has changed their policy on free speech and expression since stopping Uzuegbunam from preaching, they have...

Trump spoke privately with McConnell on Friday night following the news of Ginsburg’s death, laying out his preferences for who should replace the liberal justice, according to several people familiar with the conversation. In the phone call, Trump said he liked Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit, according to two people briefed on the discussion. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of a private conversation.

WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge: Florida has long followed the common practice of excluding those who commit serious crimes from voting. But in 2018, the people of Florida approved a historic amendment to their state constitution to restore the voting rights of thousands of convicted felons. They imposed only one condition: before regaining the right to vote, felons must complete all the terms of their criminal sentences, including imprisonment, probation, and payment of any fines, fees, costs, andrestitution.

A federal court in Florida has ruled that it is unconstitutional for schools to ban transgender students from using the restroom that matches their gender identity. Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit announced on Friday that they are affirming a lower court’s ruling on the matter because “a public school may not punish its students for gender conformity.” The case was centered around Drew Adams, a 19-year-old former student of Allen D. Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Adams, who is transgender, used the boys’ restroom at Nease High School, and did so without...

One of the men at the center of the recent Supreme Court decision that held that firing people based on sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination, was not ousted because he was gay, his former employer says. In a 6-3 decision that was released Monday in Bostock v. Clayton County — which was consolidated along with two other cases involving firings of homosexual and trans-identified employees — the high court ruled that Title VII, the civil rights provision within the 1964 Civil Rights Act that pertains specifically to employment, extends nondiscrimination protections to sexual orientation and transgender status....

TALLAHASSEE — A Florida law requiring felons to pay legal fees as part of their sentences before regaining the vote is unconstitutional for those unable to pay, or unable to find out how much they owe, a federal judge ruled Sunday. The 125-page ruling was issued by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle in Tallahassee. It involves a state law to implement a 2016 ballot measure approved by voters to automatically restore the right to vote for many felons who have completed their sentence. The Republican-led Legislature stipulated that fines and legal fees must be paid as part of the...

The Supreme Court is making it harder for noncitizens who are authorized to live permanently in the United States to argue they should be allowed to stay in the country if they've committed crimes. The decision Thursday split the court 5-4 along ideological lines. The decision came in the case of Andre Barton, a Jamaican national and green card holder. In 1996, when he was a teenager, he was present when a friend fired a gun at the home of Barton's ex-girlfriend in Georgia. And in 2007 and 2008, he was convicted of drug possession in the state. His crimes...